When Yahoo! Sports' Greg Wyshynski reported that Swedish center Nicklas Backstrom would miss the gold-medal game against Canada after testing positive for a banned substance, it came with a significant qualifier: that banned substance was allergy medicine.

Normally, the reasonable response to this sort of stuff is, "sucks for you." Athletes need to be responsible for knowing what they can and cannot put in their bodies. The end.

Still — based on a postgame news conference, Sweden probably has the right to be mad, and they are exercising it.

"The IOC has destroyed one of the great days in Swedish hockey history," Tommy Boustedt told the media in Sochi. (Actually, Canada destroyed one of the great days in Swedish hockey history, but whatever). That was a little after coach Pär Mårts said the IOC "has made things up here."

It's not an issue of making things up, though; the problem is that Sweden says Backstrom tested positive for Zyrtec-D, which he's been taking daily for seven years, including in 2010. Either something doesn't add up, or he got a raw deal. The team undeniably should've learned of that deal before Sunday.

More relevantly, an IIHF doctor called Backstrom "an innocent victim of circumstances." He, of course, is upset.

"I was ready to play probably the biggest game of my career, and 2 1/2 hours before game I got pulled aside," he said. "It’s sad."

Yep. It's also the IOC.

If there is a brightside for Backstrom, it's that the NHL '"doesn't anticipate any consequences" for him, since the league does not ban substance that triggered his positve test.

Thats also some good news for the Washington Capitals, who, all told, had a pretty rough time in Sochi; Alex Ovechkin and Team Russia didn't make it out of the quarterfinals, John Carlson was part of the medal-less U.S. team and Martin Erat scored for the Czech Republic after not doing that for the first four months of the regular season.